Instructional Message Design: The Laws of Simplicity - Learn

Thus far, I expounded on three of the seven laws of simplicity from Maeda (2006). Now I'd like to look at the fourth law (Learn). This particular law states that knowledge makes everything simpler. I therefore liken learning and simplicity which should go hand-in-hand (especially when it comes to graphics and digital messaging #thesimpler #thebetter Something doesn't have to be overly complex and exhaustive in order to be informative for example. I am usually more attracted to learning experiences that are informal, humorous and simple....those resonate the most to me....when learning is unexpected.....flavored with a little humor.....but has substance/a solid message.

I recently came across some readings by Clark and Lyons (2010) who elaborated on the various communication functions of graphics, videos and online messages. According to Clark and Lyons (2010), these communication functions could be decorative, representational, relational etc). In my previous blog post, I mentioned my love for memes, so it's only natural and fitting that I came across this meme (below).

A friend sent this meme to me via watsapp. As simple as this graphic is, I find it very insightful on several levels. My friend was empathizing with me because we were hungry for junk food but were both hesitant knowing that its not the best food to eat #thestruggle.

What I learned from this meme is that sometimes (or perhaps more often than not lol) the best tasting foods are not always the healthiest foods to eat....not everything that tastes good is good for you. Additionally, perhaps on broader scale, I applied the message in this meme to life #lifeprinciple ....sometimes the most enjoyable things in life are not good for you.

Another #lifeprinciple from this simple meme is that sacrifices must be made for the meaningful stuff....anything worth having is worth fighting/working/sacrificing for.....It means that sometimes sacrifices need to be made in order to achieve a goal. I liken it to my current academic and educational pursuits.....in order to accomplish my goals in this regard, their are some sacrifices I continue to make. For example, I miss all the good stuff/times my friends are having at the moment because I have to complete a series of readings, assignments etc....but it's all for a goal! So as simple as a message may be packaged (eg the meme above), learning can still be accomplished!

PS: I also found that graphics such as mneumonics are quite effective in the facilitation of learning (Clark & Lyons, 2010). See some of these below:



Below is the mnemonic my school teacher used to help us learn/remember the colours of the rainbow:



So graphics allow us to learn from the smallest/simplest of things.

Instructional Message Design: The Laws of Simplicity – Time

Many of my friends and I were quite active on watsapp sending and receiving numerous memes. I normally limit these but last week I guess I just needed a little extra moments to laugh, so I’d usually send memes with the hashtags #morninglaughter (if I’m sending them in the morning), and #eveninglaughter (if I’m sending them in the evening).

For this post, I’d like to look at Maeda’s (2006) law of simplicity with regard to time, and the new internet/social media craze or trend regarding memes. Similar to Twitter, Memes are some often use a minimal number of words combined with images to convey a message – this message might be an emotion, thought, expression etc. Like tweets, memes are never meant to be wordy, but concise and often denote humor in the form of sarcasm, metaphors, or even “shade” (shade is a contemporary term in popular culture referring to any kind of under-handed or subliminal insult/jab at someone).  In addition to being concise, humorous/insulting and visually based, memes must be contextually specific….the message and its meaning must be grounded in some socio-cultural context – usually this is a recent event, television show, or character/personality.

The thing about memes, is that they use some of the most hilarious and/or iconic images to further convey the meaning/message. Very often the image is used as a visual translation of the text or vice versa.  The meme below is a perfect example of all these traits that I’ve observed in the memes I’ve come across, and the ways in which they are used #laughter #funny:

Funny isn’t it? -- this was actually a meme a few colleagues and i shared to describe persons who will never change #nomatterwhat or to allude to an age-old proverb that you can't teach an old dog new tricks....I also used the same meme to convey a different meaning to my colleagues that I'm jokingly a "thug" or "bad boy" or "gangster" (which was hilarious because they know I'm not a thug etc lol :-) )

Memes reinforce several proponents of Maeda’s (2006) laws of simplicity. Not only are they simple, and concise (as we discussed in previous posts), but because of this they are also efficient as they convey they message/meaning in the shortest/quickest way possible.

I actually had a conversation with a very good friend of mine just using memes via watsapp. We used memes to relay information, create humour or “shade”, and we even used it to end the conversation….it definitely had me glued to my phone with excitement just waiting for the persons’ responses and what memes that person would use……it was soooooo much more engaging than a regular text-based conversation on watsapp. I also had a similar conversation with a couple of other friends in a watsapp group. Because of those two conversations, I’ve created a folder with dozens of memes for future conversational use, but I haven’t actively used the folder of memes since then….considering Maeda’s (2006) laws and my recent readings, I think it’s something I should resume with immediate effect!

Since I like memes so much, here are some others below which I used in different contexts for different motives and meanings, and shared with different people: #enjoy lol

After a friend sent this to me, I jokingly shared this with my other friends who probably shared the same sentiments about having to show up for work after the eclipse. 

My colleagues and I used this to trigger a conversation about persons/colleagues who ate uncontrollably at a formal event. This soon led to a conversations about other situations where our families and friends who often eat a lot, and about creativity.

This was one that I received from a friend, and then i shared it with other friends (including married persons) just to get a reaction. While the male recipients reacted by identifying with the male/silent bird, saying that it couldn't be more accurate, the female recipients often found it as a distortion of reality/the truth. I guess this meme could have perhaps triggered a future research project and/or publication? #hmmm

A friend sent me this one in response to my post about Elmo and the eclipse (see above)....it was a kind of competition to see who could out-meme each other based on the text/message, the image, and the creativity of the meme in light of the eclipse that occurred that day.

A colleague sent this one to me via watsapp when she was about to go on her leave. lol.....I think it's something we can perhaps all relate to when any vacation comes lolll.

As you can tell, I think memes are some of the most creative and engaging ways to convey a message (even if it is for instructional, marketing or other purposes). If you like any of these memes, you can access these and more via social media such as Facebook and Instagram and you can create them yourself via the numerous free online meme-generators. #happymeming :-)

Instructional Message Design: The Laws of Simplicity – Organize

Instructional Message Design: The Laws of Simplicity – Organize

In the previous post, I elaborated on Maeda’s (2006) law of simplicity as it pertains to reduction, and connected that law to the complex processes and website navigation at an institution I am very familiar. In this current post, I’d like to elaborate on the same series of websites through another one of Maeda’s (2006) laws – the law regarding organization. This law states that proper/effective organization can help make a system of many things appear fewer…..no, it’s not fraud/trickery lol😁.

As I thought upon this principle, it reminded me of the saying that “first impressions count”……in my previous post I stated that when I encounter websites that are complicated etc I simply close them down and continue searching for a simpler site of instructions. This I’m sure is what many people do, especially if you’re always on the go like me.

This week had a few members of faculty come to me for some one-on-one training via a series of clinics on accessing the campus’s LMS and setting up their online courses. Even though they were randomly from different departments, fields, etc, they ALL had an issue relating to organization of online content. While some complained that the campus’s websites were way too cluttered with an abundance of unnecessary information and links etc, others created online courses that were perhaps even more so cluttered with assignment instructions, announcements etc….which I’m sure is off-putting to their students. So while they may find the campus’s websites off-putting….their students sometimes find their online courses rather off-putting....logging in, hit by the vast onslaught of disorganized content like a head-on collision with a truck, and left feeling like....

.....that's exactly what I feel as well when I visit those course sites as well.

As I relate this situation to me, I remember many times logging into the faculty’s courses and immediately feeling overwhelmed by the information that hits me upon entering their courses….so one can only imagine how their students feel. That said, I think Maeda’s law of simplicity regarding organization is necessary because it relates even to the layout and design of content on a webpage. I think if this law were applied to my context, the websites (both administrative and course/LMS sites) will be much cleaner, less cluttered, and persons become more receptive to the web content when they visit the sites – as opposed to leaving the site or ignoring the important announcements. Like me, I’m sure no one wants something that is confusing and draining to read, let alone understand….that’s why Maeda advises on keeping things simple….and this may relate to the organization of web-content in my professional context....keeping it simple helps to keep it clean/well-organized...and to this end, planning is essential.

Instructional Message Design: The Laws of Simplicity - Reduction

Instructional Message Design: The Laws of Simplicity - Reduction

Maeda (2006) proposed ten (10) laws of simplicity inform instructional design for online learning. The laws are listed below:

THE TEN LAWS OF SIMPLICITY

Reduce: The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.

Organize: Organization makes a system of many appear fewer.

Time: Savings in time feel like simplicity.

Learn: Knowledge makes everything simpler.

Differences: Simplicity and complexity need each other.

Context: What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral.

Emotion: More emotions are better than less.

Trust: In simplicity we trust.
Failure: Some things can never be made simple.

The one: Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.

The laws of simplicity posit that multimedia messages should be designed in a way that is clear, well-organized, logical and easily understood by the intended audience, as opposed to presenting and designing information arbitrarily with great ambiguity. 

Law 1: Reduce

In this week’s post, I’d like to focus particularly on the first law which is the law of reduction. Maeda (2006) suggests making things as simple as possible and removing unnecessary complexity. I am currently employed at a university that is heavily influenced by the British education system, and very often in the academic world there is the tendency to make things unnecessarily complex/complicated…and I’m not sure exactly why that may be the prevalent trend. This ranges from basic instructions to access or use a particular service or platform to directions for finding a classroom on my campus, and even in coursework instructions. It may be limited to my local university contexts, but for some reason there tends to be the misconception that being wordy, providing an abundance of information all at once and generally making things seem complicated/complex is assimilated to being profound, learned or an academic. But according to Maeda, effectiveness is not based on being unnecessarily complex, but it is really based on keeping things as simple as possible. To this end, Maeda proposes the following continuum:

how simple can you make it?    ⇔       how complex does it have to be?

If the goal of instruction is to ensure that the intended audience/target group understands the message, shouldn’t that message be articulated in a simple manner to reduce ambiguity and enhance accurate comprehension? #justmytwocents 

Working as an eLearning Support Specialist, I encounter many websites which include websites affiliated with my university, as well as my Google applications etc. One thing that I find somewhat off-putting is the abundance of instructions when all I want is to access the site/feature😒😑😦. Very often when I see overly complex instructions, I just close the window and find simpler route/site/application.....some might see this as laziness, but I see it as trying to keep it simple for me to understand (simplicity and efficiency) 👀😊

The images below illustrate an educational site that students have to navigate just to get to the affiliated Learning Management System or LMS (see previous post on LMS). This can often be a long, pedantic and in my opinion an unnecessarily complicated and inefficient process, particularly for someone who just wants to access the LMS for a quick review of something, or to submit a project....it's almost like a simple goal/task that has been made super complicated - unnecessarily😦😩 #why.

Accessing the LMS at a particular institution:

1.      Access the campus’s main page and select a campus for which you are enrolled (see below)

2.      A new window will appear. Insert your login credentials to enter the site. Click on the MOODLE icon to access the campus’s LMS (this tiny icon may be hard to find in such a complex/busy page).

3.      A new window will appear. Insert your login credentials to enter the campus’s LMS (note, if it is your first time logging in, you will automatically be prompted to change your password which will require you to open/check your university email account)

A more efficient approach would be to simply direct users to the specific site they would like to visit, and eliminate all the directions to the other sites that they need to navigate before getting to the desired site – in other words, eliminate the need to visit the first two sites below and simply have students go directly to the third site/illustration. This is where Maeda’s (2006) law of simplicity may be quite applicable, using the first law of reduction to reduce the steps and/or sites to access the LMS to one single step – to go straight to the campus’s LMS site and login.

In conclusion, Maeda’s (2006) law of simplicity regarding reduction can be applied not just to educational instruction, but it may be applied to other fields and aspects of life e.g. human/personal relationships. Sometimes you can say a lot and increase efficiency by keeping it simple. Never complicate the simple things in life.

Justin Z.

References:

Maeda, J. (2006). The laws of simplicity. Cambridge, MA: MIT 

https://designopendata.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/lawsofsimplicity_johnmaeda.pdf